My sister-in-law responded to my post yesterday (Hi Leigh!). So I thought I would do two days in a row just to show off.

In an effort to support the local Readers World Bookshop, I purchased Chris Ware’s Rusty Brown.

I do love it. I’m about halfway through.

If I can get my tablet to work, everyday I listen to The Writer’s Almanac. I use it to sit quietly for five minutes before i take my blood pressure. Unusually yesterday I loved the poem, Forms of Love by Kim Addonizio

So it’s Sunday afternoon and I’m exhausted. Church went fine today. Streaming church is a bit of a weird experience for me. There are just a few people in the room. We now have a large screen which shows what we are streaming. This is helpful. The whole thing starts to feel even more surreal than usual.

Ir’a interesting to have Jeremy, Elizabeth, and Alex here during the holidays. Jeremy and Elizabeth are, I think, basically atheists. But when you have a kid  it’s a bit different. Even though Jeremy’s background is Jewish, he seems find with having us do a few Christmas things like put up a tree. Alex is of course enthralled. Yesterday, she, Elizabeth and I went to get a tree. Specifically Alex was along to help pick it out. We haven’t decorated it yet, but Alex is looking forward to that.

Today the fourth day of Hanukkah begins at sundown. Jeremy, Elizabeth, and Alex are doing Hanukkah things each evening. Elizabeth made latkes the first night, Jeremy, last night.

They did get a dreidel for Alex and have been playing that game each night. And of course Alex gets a present each evening.

Right now that family unit is off gallivanting in the Subaru. Eileen and I pulled the tree upstairs. It’s now ready to be trimmed.

I sure have mixed feelings at this time of year. Usually i get burnt out pretty quickly on religion. That’s kind of happening, but mostly I would just like to sit and read. That’s what I’m going to do now.

Dear Diary,

Well, it’s been a while. I have been a busy bee lately. I finished the three movements of my Covid Christmas 2020 Suite, rehearsed them and then recorded them for my brother, Mark.

I just attempted to upload the video of one of the pieces directly to my web page. That didn’t work. Now, I’m working on putting it on YouTube. If that works, I will link it here sometime.

Last Saturday, Eileen sent me flowers. On Monday, she told me she thought I was drinking too much lately. After some discussion, we agreed I should cut back to one martini and one glass of wine in an evening. So that’s what I’ve been doing the last few evenings. So far, this seems to work out fine. When the woman you love tells you you’re drinking too much (or whatever), it behooves one to pay attention.

Plus it gave me something to talk to my therapist about.

So I had to upload this video to my YouTube channel and then embed it. Here are links to pdfs of the music scores:

Greensleeves Violin pdf
Greensleeves Cello pdf
Greensleeves Piano pdf

Whew! That took longer than I was hoping it would to put here. Since I haven’t been posting, I’m not sure anyone’s really checking here very often. Google Docs says I’m getting hits but I’m not exactly sure what that means.

In order to upload the other two movements to YouTube, I have to first download them from my Google Drive. I’m doing that now. In the  meantime, I’ll blather on for a bit.

I have had a full week of prepping for upcoming liturgies. Monday I set aside as a day to do my own working plan for a streaming version of Lessons and Carols and Christmas Eve for my church. I managed to do that.

Tuesday is Date Drive Day for Eileen and me. This means we make a picnic lunch then jump in the car and drive to the park and sit where we can see the lake. Then read, have lunch, and play Boggle in the car. it sounds goofy but it gives us some relaxed time completely alone.

Recently, Elizabeth was joking with me. “Remember?” she said, “Remember when we lived with you for a year?” (meaning our current situation) I replied, “Remember when you lived with me for three years and we took turns having nervous break downs?”

My therapist got a kick out of that one.

On Wednesday I met virtually with my boss, Rev Jen, and we sketched out what I and the piano trio will need to do for Lessons and Carols (on Advent IV) and Christmas Eve. Yesterday, I showed the plan to Amy and Dawn (my string players). They approved. It’s helpful to have this all thought through and finished when we are so constrained with safety precautions for the Covid 19 pandemic.

This morning I returned to some of my long range reading projects and read another Canto from Dante’s Paradisio (in three translations). I’ve been doing a lot of reading in and about Homer, but failing to get to Dante. I’m about half way through Paradisio after having finished Inferno and Purgatorio.

So I’m uploading while I’m writing today’s entry. This one finished.

The Snow piano pdf
The Snow – Violin pdf
The Snow – Cello pdf

and finally this one:

God rest keyboard pdf
God Rest violin  pdf
God rest cello pdf

I think that’s enough for today. I hope to not be away from my blog so long next time.

I listened to Rhonda and Brian’s concert yesterday. It was flattering to be included. They played well, but the sound is not so good. The balance at the beginning of the “Lord I want” obscures the trumpet line. But I’m not complaining. I’m embedding the video to begin at my piece but I recommend the entire recital especially  “Flatus II.”

Reading the comments makes me think that the sound might be attributable to how I listened to it (on my Roku TV).

I got up this morning and wrote two different versions of a hymn text we might use for our opening hymn on Advent I, II, and III at Grace. I did a riff on the hymn written for Jen: “People of Grace.” I tried to combine it with some Advent ideas and used “Lift up your heads” quite a bit. I’m curious to see what Jen thinks about it.

The Sunday service was gratifying to me. We finally played the Bach we have been working on and pretty much nailed it. Lovely stuff.

I need to plan next Sunday’s music but I’m a bit burned out today.

Here are some limks.

I lived through a stupid coup

The Coup Stage of Donald Trump’s Presidency | The New Yorker

The Historical Record Shows America Was Founded Against Racism

Airwars

This is an amazing organization that tracks wars.

Factually: Global fact-checkers find strength in numbers – American Press Institute

American Press Institute and Factually. Resources to learn and stay sane.

I am feeling very lucky this afternoon. I have made up music most of my life, but haven’t pursued a conventional career in it. I guess I haven’t been too conventional about much. But today is a very satisfying day when I spent several hours working with and performing some of my own compositions.

Yesterday I got up and instead of doing Greek, I sat down at the computer to work on an arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” for my piano trio. I worked for about an hour and was very unsatisfied. I was talking to Eileen and said I had struggled with the composition. She was surprised. She said i thought you were pretty much done with this piece.

I then recalled that I had thought that all of the work I had done prior in the week on it seemed at one point to have enough material for a final arrangement. So in the afternoon, I backed it up a little and followed my original game plan. By martini time I was printing off final copies of it and the other arrangement I did recently of “What Child is This.”

Today at piano trio rehearsal we read through them. It was a pleasant surprise that they worked as well as I thought.  Dawn and Amy were very complimentary.

After that rehearsal, I stopped by the house and picked up Eileen. We drove to Zeeland to sit in on a rehearsal  of my trumpet/organ piece by Rhonda Edgington and Brian Reichenbach. I invited my friend, Jordan, to come by as well.

It was very satisfying to hear them working on this piece. it sounds even better than I had hoped. Also, I enjoyed the back and forth we had regarding it. Very cool.

This Friday at 7 PM, Rhonda and Brian will be streaming a concert. I’m not sure if they are going to play my piece then or not. They didn’t mention that today. But here is a link to their YouTube Channel where presumably they will stream tomorrow night.

I am grateful that at the age of 69, I continue to have opportunities to compose music for people to perform. Even though I didn’t make a conventional career of it, I feel like it’s sort of a theme in my life.

This post will balance all the silliness in the last one. My week has quickly filled up. Yesterday turned out to be much busier than I like my Mondays. it took me forever to choose organ music for this upcoming Sunday. I sat at the bench and went through piece after piece. Finally i settled on learning two new Clerambault organ pieces. I was in the mood for Couperin, but find his organ music either too long for a prelude/postlude or not that interesting to me. The latter is especially true after familiarizing myself with his harpsichord music which i think is wonderful.

Also, yesterday Eileen and I had to prep the garage so that workers could get around to repair our silly garage door opener. Today, we are skipping our date/drive. Eileen had a doctor’s appointment. I called the garage people and they are indeed coming but they don’t know when. When they arrive I plan to wheel all the bicycles and stuff on wheels out of the garage (as per Eileen’s instructions) and move the cars.

Wednesday I have staff meeting, Thursday trio, Friday shrink appointment. So I am trying to cram some reading in between all this stuff.

The weather is beautiful right now.

So here are some poems to offset the last blog’s navel gazing.

The Ladder (excerpted since I don’t have permission to reproduce the whole thing)

by Sarah Kay

Whenever I hurt myself, my mother says
it is the universe’s way of telling me to
slow down. …

…. My mother knows how to tie knots
like a ship captain, but doesn’t know
how I got that sailor mouth.  She falls asleep
in front of the TV only until I turn it off,
shouts, I was watching that! ….

She makes tea by hand. Nettles, slippery elm,
turmeric, cinnamon—my mother is a recipe
for warm throats and belly laughs. Once,
She fell off a ladder when I was three.
She says all she was worried about was
my face as I watched her fall.

from No Matter the Wreckage

Narrative (again excerpted)

by P. J. Kavanagh

I dreamt a love-story yesterday.
Who loved who is anyone’s guess.
But it tasted of love, and I still see
The little boy in the Scripture class.

…

He felt he was enclosed in glass
As streams divided round his head
of pavement men as blind as grass.
He asked a tart if he was mad.

…

Alone, alone in his premature coffin
He foundered low and pondered long.
Badgered the priest to visit him often.
Draw him a diagram when he went wrong.

‘Patience! Patience! sang the priest.
Begged him bow and pray for grace.
Promised him the Eucharist.
So he bowed and prayed at last.

He enjoyed resignation. It lightened his head.
Filled his eyes, like moons, with light.
He felt better. He said he did.
And opened his mouth to take the bread.

How could I know why he did it?
Perhaps to be hated was better than nothing.
The priest brought his hand to his mouth, and he bit it.
That noise of bone on bone. It broke my dreaming.

Did stars of comfort rain from the blows on his head?
That he blessed the warders, I’m sure, through teeth bright red.
Night picked him like a flower. I left him dead.
Still biting the hand that fed, that fed.

from Collected Poems by P. J. Cavanagh.

Funny thing about Cavanagh. I was looking for a poet named Patrick Kavanagh. When P. J. came up on the library’s search, it indicated his first name was Patrick so I thought i was the same buy. Nope.

Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. He lived from 1904 to 1967 and was the author of the poem I was interested in called “Epic.”

P. J. Kavanagh lived from 1931 to 2015 and was an English poet, actor, novelist, and lecturer. I do like his poems.

and finally ending on a happy note: Crude Foyer by Wallace Stevens.

In Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change, Maxine Greene has a chapter entitled “The Shapes of Childhood Recalled.” I haven’t finished this chapter yet but it has already helped me a great deal.

What I think she is saying is that as children we have a certain kind of a prereflective presence, a unique consciousness that connects us and allows us to create and ” and bring patterns and structures into existence.” As we grow we add more and more layers until we have lost touch with this reflectiveness. We can’t completely return to it, but we can recapture some of the primacy of this experience and percpetion.

She goes on “one of the ways of beginning the reflection that may enable us to create a narrative and to start understanding imagination in our lives is through the recovery of literary experiences that have been significant to us at various times in our lives. The reading of literature may nurture all kinds of understanding of lived structures of meaning.”

Not only that but these experiences shape who we are.

One of the puzzles of my life is where did I get the passions that I have at this point. I love my parents but they didn’t shape me that much into my life as a musician, reader, and lover of the arts. However, my direct contact with literature and ideas has been very formative for me. Could it be that by reading Ibsen, Dylan Thomas, John Berryman (just to name a few) and listening and thinking about Bach as well other connections including walking through art museums, improvising, and listening to all kinds of music, could these things have shaped a narrative that leads me to be who I am now and who I continue to become?

Is this part of the reason that my personal narrative is so embedded in literature, music, poetry, and the theater?

This makes some sense to me. Ever since reading Mortimer J. Adler’s idea that books and great ideas are in conversation with each other, I have endeavored to get into that conversation.

A bit heavy when my emotional terrain right now is (surprisingly enough to me) one of relief that Trump will not be the president of the USA for much longer. Thank goodness for that.

Also a bit heavy for Sunday afternoon.

What I want to do is read and goof off.

In the meantime, it’s good to see that Jordan is doing stuff. Listen to this!

This is a very weird time, eh? I’m not watching the unfolding madness too closely. I’m referring to the lack of closure to the last presidential election. I was unhappy to see so many Americans going down the rabbit hole of Trump madness. This was my basic reaction, disappointment.

I ascribe this turn of events to a confluence of several things: demonization of those we disagree with, the wide strain of racism specifically white supremacy in the American ethos, inability to tell misinformation from facts (this is probably partly due to lazily checking stuff online without carefully noticing its source , and other things.

The way i am staying sane is immersing myself in things I love like learning ideas, music, and reading.

Even though I haven’t finished Maxine Greene’s Releasing the Imagination, I have begun outlining the book, recording my notes and observations. I resist purchasing a copy because I want to digest her ideas and then pursue. One of my pursuits has been to begin reading Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone . This is a novel about Fascism in a small Italian village. It seems timely.

So practicing, studying, reading, thinking, this is the way I try to stay sane.

Recently, my granddaughter, Alex, was streaming to her kindergarten class sitting in my chair. The teacher remarked that there seemed to be a lot of books in the background. Apparently, Alex piped up that it was a house of books.

Makes an old man proud.

Today we ended not using the piano trio as scheduled. The violinist had to quarantine at the last minute because she had been exposed. I text the cellist to stay home. I went in and played some cool Bach for All Saints instead. It was probably a bit more festive than what we had planned but not as elegant. We were ready with some movements fro m the Bach violin sonatas which i think are amazing. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Maxine Greene is my flavor of the week philosopher/writer. She sort of a counter balance to Harold Bloom (both are deceased). Where Bloom has a clear idea of what the canon should consist of in Western Literature, Greene has a clear and larger embrace of the riches of Western literature and ideas which would include Bloom’s but goes further.

Wickipedia describes Greene as an “American educational philosopher, author, social activist and teacher.”Alex Ross footnoted her in an essay in his book, Listen to This.

I think she is amazing. I found a YouTube video of her lecture, “Blue Guitar: Arts and Aesthetics in Learning,” some of which I listened to this morning.

It’s not nearly as dull as it  might sound. She keeps sending me back to other books. In her, Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education,  the Arts, and Social Change, she pulls in all kinds of ideas from other writers and sends me scurrying into my house of books to look at them.

People like Thomas Mann (Confessions of Felix Krull Confidence Man, the early years) and Ntozoke Shange (Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf). The ‘blue guitar’ image comes from a poem by Wallace Stevens.

Cool beans.

I’m also plugging away at a book Jeremy recommended: Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks.

I finished reading Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn. Zadie Smith reviewed some of his books  and convinced me I would like him. I do. My lovely brother and his wife gave me a gift certificate at Betterworldbooks.com. I splurged and bought several titles of St. Aubyn just on Smith’s recommendation. Dunbar is one of those retellings of Shakespeare stories. In this case, the original story was King Lear. St. Aubyn is very witty and reminds me a bit of Anthony Burgess. I have several more titles to read and am looking forward to them.

I also recently finished Cathy Park Hon’s Minor Feelings. Besides one chapter in this book (chapter 5), I can’t say enough good about Hong’s essays. I didn’t get much out of her description of her college days and friends in Chapter 5. But the rest is quite good.

I read a library copy and took copious notes. She is brilliant.

Here is her own explanation about the title:

“in [Richard] Pryor, I saw someone channel what I call minor feelings: the racialized range of emotions that are negative, dysphoria, and therefore untelegenic, built from the sediments of everyday racial experience and the irritant of having one’s perception of reality constantly questioned or dismissed. Minor feelings arise, for instance,upon hearing, a slight, knowing it’s racial, and being told, Oh, that’s all in your head. A now classic book that explores minor feelings is Cladia Rankine’s Citizen. After hearing a racist remark, the speaker asks herself, what did you say? She saw what she saw, she heard what she heard, but after her reality has been belittled so many times, she begins to doubt her very own senses. Such disfiguring of senses engenders the minor feelings of paranoia, shame, irritation, and melancholy.”

The book is full of excellent ideas and passages. I will limit myself to quoting one more here:  “The soul of innovation thrives on cross-cultural inspiration. If we are restricted to our lanes, culture will die.”

She rocks.

While I was typing my friend Rhonda came to the door and dropped off a gift for me: the two volume Etymological Dictionary of Greek by Robert Beekes.

I have been wanting this book for a while. Eileen recently stopped me from purchasing it. Now I see why. Rhonda said she wanted to give me something to thank me for the trumpet/organ piece I wrote. Well, I am definitely “thanked” now. Thank you, Rhonda!

Boy, this time of pandemic has a lot of good parts for Jupe. I am spoiled, that’s for sure.

He Was a Rising Jazz Pianist. Then His NYC dreams were shattered

This is a discouraging story from the local section of Sunday’s NYT.

How The Epoch Times Created a Giant Influence Machine – The New York Times

When The Epoch Times began advertising on YouTube, it was right before I went premium. One advert was all it took to see what a nasty propaganda machine they are. I enjoyed learning more about them in this article.

Indigenous Colombians, Facing New Wave of Brutality, Demand Government Action – The New York Times

It’s unusually warm today for a late fall day here in Holland, Michigan. I got up a bit late but no one else was up yet. I turned off the furnace and opened doors and a window. It has since gotten chilly. This afternoon,  all doors and windows are closed, but the heat isn’t on. I’m sitting in my living room with a blanket draped over me.

I made bread. it’s cooling.

Earlier this morning I reread a new poem by Alison C. Rollins. I  stumbled across her yesterday. She has the first poem in the Poetry Magazine in the new November issue.

I just checked and this issue is not posted online yet on the Poetry site. Rollins’ poem is called “Quartet for the End of Time.” Here’s a link to her website, if you are curious. I haven’t read any other poems by her, but I did inter library loan her book,  Library of Small Catastrophes.

I find myself reading the new translation of Proust, Vol. 2. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower.

I have read my way twice through Proust. I remember more each time. Reading this for the third time (granted in a new translation) feels like reading poetry almost since I know the direction he is heading. Great stuff.

One of the transcriptions my trio is scheduled to play this weekend is a setting by Grieg.

I think it’s kind of nice. I don’t know too much about Grieg. I have been playing through what I own of his piano music. It seems to fit my mood right now. I’m going to go read Grove about him after I publish this blog.

Angela Davis Still Believes America Can Change – The New York Times

I

I’m getting back to my daily Ancient Greek study. I am finding one book in particular quite charming. It’s called Eight Books of Homer’s Odyssey with Introduction, Commentary, and Vocabulary, for the use of schools by Bernadotte Ferring, Professor of Greek in Yale College and Thomas Day Seymour, Hillhouse Professor of Greek in Yale College. Copyright 1897.

“For the use of schools.” The charm is hard to pin point. There is a warmth in the prose of the explanations and many illustrations like the one of Homer above throughout including in the notes and vocabulary at the back of the book. It’s very practical actually.

I also inter-library loaned a bunch of books on John Berryman.

Berryman’s Dream Songs have been charming me since  I was in my teens, but that’s as far as I got with him. It turns out he has written a ton of other stuff and, of course, there are many books about him. I’m looking forward to figuring out which ones I want to purchase and read.

Here’s a couple of cool quotes before I leave:

Having replaced instinct with language, society, and culture, we are the only species that depends on teaching and learning.

Urusula K. Leguin, Lao Tzu, Tao Te ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the way (Leguin translator)

Today is Le Guin’s birth date. She died in 2018. I am still plowing my way through her works.

If you argue that you intrinsically cannot trust that which is reported and that which you are taught  then you are foreclosing the possibility of reason to direct human affairs in so far as it can.”

Jon Meecham

Quote is from a 2018 Book Cspan interview. It’s great. Here’s a link.

My organ trumpet piece is basically done. Rhonda and I continue to correspond about details. I enjoy the collaboration and am pretty sure this process will continue to improve the piece. Having it done is a relief the way an end of a college semester is a relief. I feel freer to do things like a blog post or Greek or reading.

Here’s some of what I’ve been reading.

Why Ross Douthat is right about Trump Or, how the Trump campaign is like a procrastinating undergraduate

I saw Douthat’s columns that Daniel Drezner is referring to in this Washington Post Op Ed piece.  I didn’t bother to read them. There are many points in this article that makes sense to me. I had already thought about the fact that people in many of the Governmental departments Trump would need for a coup have been alienated by his behavior bureaucratically.

Chase Strangio’s Victories for Transgender Rights | The New Yorker

Then there’s the new issue of The New Yorker. This article is by the inimitable Masha Gessen. It’s a profile of Chase Strangio who is an ACLU lawyer who happens to be trans as is Gessen. I love Gessen’s work. Here’s the section I read aloud to Eileen (poor woman). Gessen handles Strangio’s sexuality gingerly. This quote occurs more than three quarters of the way in. Strangio uses both “he” and “they” pronouns. Gessen uses only “they.”

In August, 2013, Strangio appeared on television for the first time, on “Democracy Now!” He had been invited to talk about Chelsea Manning, who was then serving a thirty-five-year sentence in a men’s military prison for violating the Espionage Act by giving military documents to WikiLeaks. Manning had just come out as transgender, and the Army was refusing to provide her with hormone treatment for her transition, which Strangio argued was unconstitutional. The show’s host, Amy Goodman, said, “Couldn’t you tell us your story? You are transitioning from woman to man.” One can see Strangio gulping air before diverting the question. “I am someone who identifies as transgender,” he replied. “And, as a transgender person, hearing from Chelsea Manning yesterday is especially, you know, empowering. I think it is so brave to come out.” He told me that as he responded he thought, I am never doing this again.

Opinion | Don’t Give Up on America – The New York Times

“Life Without Children,” by Roddy Doyle | The New Yorker

“Song,” by Louise Glück | The New Yorker

Same issue. Glück is a poet whose poems I sometimes admire. I admire this one.

This weekend kicked my butt. By the time Sunday afternoon arrived I was exhausted. I’m not exactly sure why. I did have a wedding on Saturday afternoon. I made cornbread that morning as well. In between, I went and bought a phone. I had one on order but discovered that Verizon had back ordered it and it wasn’t going to be sent out for a couple weeks. I canceled that order and walked through the door at my favorite locally owned Verizon franchise store (much better than the idiot company stores). I had a phone by noon.

My trio played yesterday and it went well. In between our regular Sunday morning stream of the Liturgy of the Word and the outside Eucharist, weather permitting, the trio sits outside and plays. I schedule a piece and put the title in the bulletin (online pdf),  but that’s not enough. So yesterday I asked my string players to bring the Episcopal hymnal, Wonder, Love, and Praise out with them. I have an extra accompaniment edition for the cellist. I had them play a few hymns and interspersed improvised piano stuff in between.

I think my trumpet/organ piece is essentially finished and in the hands of the performers. This is a freeing feeling.

On Saturday my old friend, Bob Hobby, called me up. Bob and I were good friends in Grad School. But after that, we drifted apart as people do. It was flattering that he thought of calling me and we had a lovely chat.

This morning I managed to get  a contractor to look at our garage situation. His assessment was a bit startling. He said the original installation was so bad that we could consider a lawsuit. He said it was unsafe the day it was installed. What was installed was a garage opener anyone could buy at Menards (the contractor’s words). But, my little garage was not exactly set up for it and the installer had cut away at the main beam to make room for it. This had weakened to the point, the opener quit working. The contractor pointed out numerous badly done parts of the installation. He recommended a garage door installer to come do the work.

He’s coming tomorrow morning to assess the situation. The guy today said it’s likely that our typical little Western Michigan garage (again, his words) might be too small for an automatic door opener. The installer coming should be able to not only decide that, but re-do the beams that the old installer ruined.

Apparently we were very lucky that the original installation hadn’t come crashing down and hurt someone.

Lucky again.

I went over to church today and picked out a prelude and postlude for Sunday. I am doing two gorgeous pieces by Buxtehude: Vater unser im Himmelreich BuxWV 220 and Von Gott will ich nicht lassen BuXWV 330. They sound excellent on my Pasi and are not too much work. I have already filled in the bulletin for this Sunday. So that’s done.

Oddly, we had a Trump person come to our door this weekend as well. She was an elderly white lady lady with no mask. I went to the door and she said that she could see what our politics were from all the signs, but were there any people in the house that might not be of that ilk. I was cordial. Apparently, she wanted to interview people she agree with. I wished her luck.

There was an article in this weekend’s Sunday New York Times called “What Does It Mean to Love a Country?” by Marilyn Robinson. Independently of that, I ran across a nice passage  by Ursula K. Leguin along the same lines. Serendipity.

“How does one hate a country, or love one? …. I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all of that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love one’s country’ is it hate of one’s uncountry? Then it’s not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That’s a good thing, but one mustn’t make a virtue of it, or a profession…. Insofar as I love life, I love the hills of the Domain of Estre, but that sort of love does not have a boundary line of hate.” from The Left Hand of Darkness by Urusla K. LeGuin

Here’s a long overdue blog post. I have been one busy camper. This morning before Eileen got up, I finished the final touches on my trumpet organ piece and emailed it to the players. Sunday, Rhonda told me that she and the trumpet player were planning to meeting this Friday (tomorrow). I freaked and worked all evening on finishing up what I could and emailing it to them. Unfortunately, there was one section in the first movement that I had to mark “Still under construction.” This was an extended organ section which I wanted to add to give the trumpet player enough breaks in the movement. Plus I did have several ideas about how to write it, but it wasn’t ready to send off.

I have been remembering the first time a teacher commented on my composing. It was at Ohio Wesleyan in what they called a Theory Zip class. In other words, a no credit required class to bring people up to speed in theory. We had an assignment to write a piece. I wrote one (something I still think is a good piece). Mr Lawrence, the teacher, asked me what my procedure had been, what was my theoretical rationale. I stumbled and told him I didn’t really have one. I just wrote what I thought sounded good.

I now know that a smart rejoinder to that would have been to ask me why it sounded good to me. I don’t know if I could answer it then but I could answer that question now about my writing.

Monday I did other stuff including working on some organ music. Playing Distler this past Sunday inspired me to get back into playing some decent organ music. I’m working on some Buxtehude and some Elgar. I think my people would like Elgar.

Yesterday, I went to the IMSLP site and printed off so much music for my piano trio that I went through an entire cartridge of black ink. Sheesh. It was work it. I found nine volumes of selected movements for piano trio. We are playing from this stuff on this Sunday. The trio was fired up about doing some different stuff including Tchaikowsky, Corelli, and a goofy French romantic pizzicato piece.

Here’s a recording of the Tchaikowsky arr. by some young people.

And here’s the goofy French piece. We don’t play quite as drunkenly as this group. But it is a fun piece.

We have a couple nice Corelli pieces ready to play outside weather permitting.

I made bread this morning also. I’m a tired dude this afternoon. I recently finished Emily West’s translation of The Odyssey. I have been working on reading it in the Greek using some cool new resource books. I also returned to reading Don Quixote recently.

My son in law bought me a new tablet. I (ahem) broke the old one a while back. He also purchased insurance on it so if I abuse it and ruin it, I can get a new one.

My phone is dying. I have ordered one and it should arrive in the mail very soon.

I discovered that I may be the only person in my house that still likes South Park. My boss mentioned that it’s one of her guilty pleasures. She  described a recent episode that she found funny. It was not the one below.

It turns out there is a nice rejoinder to the insane comment that China sent us Covid 19. Actually, Randy did it when he and Mickey Mouse fucked a bat in Wuhan. You have been warned. Despite the slight disapproval from Eileen and Jeremy, i think this is hilarious.

I know my readership is dwindling. I don’t blame people for this. Years ago when I first started up a web site, I realized that I needed to update daily. I did this for years. But lately it seems to have fallen in my priorities. But for those of you reading, thanks for reading.

My current composition project (trumpet and organ piece) is using up a lot of my energy even though sometimes this energy is spent in thinking about the piece rather than actually working on it. Today I may have finished a first draft of the third movement. I promised myself I would work morning and afternoon at the computer on it today. And that’s what I did. This means I now have working drafts of all three movements.

This morning while Eileen was getting her blood drawn for her annual check up, I took Hindemith’s trumpet sonata up with me to look at while I waited. My trumpet player pointed out that in my first movement, the trumpet played almost constantly and he was used to having more measures rest. I didn’t know what to make of that and thought I would check and see what Hindemith did. Sure enough, lots of rests. Okey dokey, then.

My assignment to myself for today was to work on the unfinished third movement. As I worked over it, I kept in mind that the trumpet needed some rests. I did this in part by throwing some themes to the organ  that previously were  the trumpet solo. So where the trumpet was playing melody for many measures, now organ and trumpet alternated. Unsurprisingly, this improved the movement quite a bit. Thank you, Mr. Trumpet player.

It also strengthened the piece where I had previously had some doubts about the evolving B theme which was entirely composed and not directly related to the Sorrow Song. It seemed to almost be a digression when the trumpet did the melody all the way through this contrasting section. By giving the organ some sections on its own, the whole thing made more sense to me. Cool.

I did sketch an ending to this movement, but it’s not quite in a finished version.

I may be to the point that from here on in, I am polishing and editing all three movements for a good while. This piece has taken a lot out of me. I have been conscious of using Negro Spirituals or Sorrow Songs. I didn’t want to be guilty of appropriation or musical colonization, but I feel a great deal of ownership and love for Spirituals. They have been with  me all my life. So it’s fun to try to use them with my own brand of integrity. Stay tuned to see if I pull it off entirely to my satisfaction.

I have finished a couple books recently. I read Chick Corea’s A Work in Progress … On Being a Musician; Volume 1, revised. I read it in one sitting the day it came in the mail. It was mostly disappointing and little more than a pamphlet of about 40 pages. It was nicely put together physically, but I learned very little from it. I’m sure Corea has a lot to teach, he just didn’t write a book I can admire.

I finished a manga comic called Tekkonkinkreet: Black and White all in one by Taiyo Matsumoto. It was very dark.

I think the art was one of the characters and probably the one I liked the best. I found this story description on a comic book online store.

“Orphaned on the mean streets of Treasure Town, lost boys Black and White must mug, steal and fight to survive. Around them moves a world of corruption and loneliness, small-time crooks and neurotic police officers, and a band of sadistic yakuza who have plans for their once-fair city.”

It was a disturbing read. I found myself hiding it from Alex who insatiably curious. Not quite appropriate for her age, I guess.

The Mirror of Human Life by Clark and Connon is blowing my mind. Apparently, Couperin had many specific ideas that inspired the many obscure titles to his music. I have spent a life time playing and loving his music, but now I am learning more details of what inspired him and what he meant by his music. This is a lot of fun and is rewarding as well. For no particular reason I feel like I am being drawn in to learning much more about his music and life.

Francois Couperin

You know you’re old when your birthday treat is getting up and not having to do the dishes before making morning coffee. Here’s what my kitchen looked like this morning.

That’s a birthday chair cover in case you can’t make it out.

I am very grateful and happy to have lived this long. I hope I can continue for a while. We have had a series of birthdays here recently in lockdown: Eileen, Jeremy, and Alex. So I tried to provide a bit more direction for my birthday than I usually do when it’s just Eileen and me.

I asked for flowers.

These came during breakfast. Also, instead of a cake I asked for apple pie.

Here’s Eileen putting a luscious Crane’s frozen apple pie in the oven. She made her delicious home made ice cream to go on top.

Usually Eileen and I go out together to celebrate. The pandemic has put a crink in that. So since my birthday falls on a Tuesday this year we switched our weekly date/drive to the beach to yesterday. Granted, we sat in our car since it was chilly. But it is still relaxing. Today, Elizabeth has ordered take out from my favorite restaurant for lunch.

Before anyone got up I managed to put in some time on my composition. I think I have the second movement in a workable first draft now. That probably lowered my blood pressure another couple of points.

And of course I ordered myself a special birthday book.

I’m afraid it’s out of stock on Amazon, but it is now back ordered and I can wait.

My life is good.

Elizabeth bought a flag. I like that we fly it near our Black Lives Matter window and our windows full of posters for Biden and other democratic candidates. She bought and installed a holder and takes it down every night as per flag etiquette. Us libtards can be patriotic.

I love our front yard. This is one of many milkweed plants there.

I’m proud of the pic above.

I don’t have too much to say today.

Playing at Wigmore Hall on 14 September – Susan Tomes

I read Susan Tomes blog. She brings up an interesting idea. If one is socially distancing, this omits the use of page turners. I sympathize. Tomes plays a lot of the piano trio literature which can be a bugger to turn pages on.

A Work in Progress – Chick Corea

‘You Need to Leave Now, Ma’am’

‘Rule Brittania’ Controversy: Context Is Needed | National Review

Book Review: More Ilumination About François Couperin » Early Music America

How did I not know about this book? It’s in the third edition. My copy is winging its way from a used shop in the UK (cheapest way to purchase).

Rhonda and her son, Isaac, made this video of a piece I wrote last year. It’s very flatter to me that they took the time and trouble to do this.

The Lord the Almighty pdf
Life and Breath.pdf
Goodness and mercy final,pdf
Trio.pdf
05 Psaltery.pdf

I have been remiss on updating, I know. But I have been putting in hours on my composition and also have been in a weird space. Who isn’t? What an odd time in America. I’ll try to update a bit more often. In the meantime, a rather dreary description of my recent compositional trials follows.

Compositional Update

I think I now have an idea how the second movement to my trumpet/organ piece is going to go. It has been through multiple revisions and has been a bit of a struggle for me. But, I think I can hear the shape of it now and can envision being satisfied with working it out.

So I started with the first version without thinking about using the harmon mute on the trumpet. Then I decided to dedicate this movement to Miles Davis. The harmon mute is a slight nod in his direction. But Lord knows I wasn’t trying to match his genius or even show musical influence or do a tribute.

So the second version,  included a B section using the mute. Then I decided the new material was incongruous with the old. This included a carefully worked out four part harmonization of the melody, Lord I want to be a Christian. I cut everything but the muted section and made a third version.

Then I decided the muted section would need a B section of its own. The fourth version of the piece included a fairly worked out organ accompaniment. It was simple but I really liked it. Again, the new B section didn’t fit. So for the fifth version, I decided to use the original four part harmonization in a new key. After toying around a bit with this, I arrived at what I hope is the beginning of the final version.

In its present state I toned down the A section and saved some of the better parts for its return after the B section. So now the piece starts very dissonant and dreamy, moves to a chorale setting in a different key of the melody with the organ playing three distinct lines like a trio under the trumpet playing the melody. Then the A section returns and builds to denouement. I am more satisfied with this idea.

I am trying to not compose or do much church work today. I did go over to the church to pick out music for Sunday and landed on some charming Purcell to match the hymn tune, Westminster Abbey. We will use a couple of stanzas of the hymn, “Christ is made the sure foundation” as our shortened sequence hymn.

And when one is composing, musical ideas are never that far away from consciousness.

But I did Greek today for the first time in a while. I also read three translations of Canto X from Dante’s Paradiso. I have been working daily on getting through Mortimer J. Adler’s Aristotle For Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Simple. This stuff clears the brain. I’m reading the wonderful edition I have of T. S. Eliot’s poems and spending a lot of time with the foot notes.

Jeremy purchased and refurbished a rectangular table for the kitchen. This is a good idea with five people. Previously we had a round table which took up more room.

I have kept up my poetry reading. Working on A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing by Da Maris B. Hill and Kith by Divya Victor. Both are excellent and challenging.  I own the latter.

I read Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang. It caught the eye of Alex so now Eileen is reading it to her.

Enough. Time to go sit in the back yard and read some more.

This is weird. Last Wednesday and Thursday, my Google Analytics tells me I had over a hundred hits here each day. Very odd.

I haven’t been blogging because I am using all my extra time to work on my composition.

On the up side, I sent a pdf and wav file of my first movement to Rhonda and Jordan. I was inspired to do so because Jordan emailed me to ask how it was going with the composition. He also told me he enjoys reading my blog (Hi Jordan!). He and Rhonda quickly responded to my first movement. I was very encouraged that Jordan seems to take my work so seriously and is so encouraging. At this time of my life, there are few people in that camp and it is flattering that Jordan is so supportive. This is especially true since I think he is an excellent musician.

On the down side, I hit a bit of snag with my second movement. I decided to dedicate it to Miles Davis, whom I admire greatly. I thought it would be cool to have  a section in it where the trumpet player uses a harmon mute. This is something Davis was known to do.

I had the second movement mostly done and needed one more section for it. Sometime last week, I came up with some ideas utilizing trumpet with a harmon mute that I was very happy with. After sending off the first movement to my colleagues, I returned to the second movement, thinking I could tidy it up quickly.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the sections I had previously developed didn’t fit together very well. One of these sections is one that I think works very well. The bad news was that I liked the new section better. So I winnowed the piece down to just the new section, discarding the original parts that I liked but didn’t fit with the newer ideas.

This decision rattled me. It reminded me of writing prose. Sometimes I end up discarding the first paragraph or first page after i get going. I’m pretty sure the new section is the one i want to develop. This sets me back a bit. I’m now pondering coming up with a new B section to the second movement.

There seem to be stages of composition for me. The initial conceiving of ideas is one stage. This is a hard one to prime. The spinning out of ideas into more elaborate development and treatment is a completely different stage. The final stage is one of polishing, adding details like articulations and adjusting the notation to be more clear. The last two stages are much easier than the first and respond to discipline and energy.

My set back throws the second movement all the way back to the initial conceiving stage of coming up with ideas for that B section. it’s not quite starting from go, but it definitely requires different energy.

I have some ideas for that section but I’m trying to let them gestate for a while. I’m not planning on working on the piece at all this afternoon. The third movement is close to being done, but I’m feeling less secure about the whole thing.

It helps greatly that my colleagues are willing to put in there two cents. Thank you, Jordan and Rhonda!